China's space probe which is halfway to asteroid grabs stunning selfie as Earth glows tiny in the background

Move over, Ellen DeGeneres’ famous 2014 Oscars selfie, there’s a new player in town – China’s space probe, which is halfway to an asteroid, grabbed a stunning selfie in front of Earth as it glows tiny in the background.

China’s Tianwen-2 probe was caught snapping some pics for its Instagram profile, using the monitoring camera on its robotic arm.

In the frame, you can see the probe’s return capsule gleaming white, the Chinese flag proudly displayed, and way in the background… our home planet, reduced to a tiny shimmering dot.

At the time of the selfie, Tianwen-2 was about 43 million kilometres from Earth, which is almost exactly the same distance from its asteroid target.

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China’s space probe grabs a stunning selfie in front of Earth

Have you ever heard the phrase ‘if you didn’t put it on Instagram, then it never happened’?

Well, it seems that along with millions of people, China’s space probe seems to agree. It basically broke the internet when it posted a selfie that had as much cultural impact as the 2014 Oscars selfie that Ellen took.

The Tianwen-2 probe is heading towards an asteroid, but it decided to celebrate making it halfway by snapping a quick shot with our home planet shining about 43 million kilometres away.

Incidentally, Tianwen-2 is the same distance away from its destination asteroid, so celebrations were certainly in order.

Halfway to its asteroid destination

The Tianwen-2 probe was only launched at the end of May this year, so it’s making very good progress towards Kamoʻoalewa, AKA 2016 HO3.

Kamoʻoalewa is often referred to as a ‘mini-moon’ because it orbits close to Earth, and China’s space probe’s ETA is July 2026.

It’s going to collect dust and rock samples and send them back to Earth in 2027. After it’s done that, it’s going to carry on to a comet called 311P/PANSTARRS where it will arrive in 2035, all being well.

The selfie is great because it shows us that the space probe is getting on well and everything is in working order, as well as reminding us how tiny Earth is in comparison to the rest of the universe.

We need to send a big thanks to Tianwen-2 for keeping us humble.

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